hostile rejeeps in north korean north koreaia and iran. cheney opposed that. condoleeza rice prevailed. vice president was clear he didn t agree with everything the president decided to do toward the end of the administration. bret: while cheney helped vet you additional an points president bush did not consult him on his ill-fated choice of harriet miers for the supreme court. that was pure george bush. i said, well okay. bret: the vice president s biggest disagreement with the president involved cheney s long time friend and chief of staff, scooter libby. libby got into big legal trouble over the leaked identity of cia agent valerie plame. libby was not the leaker, but got 2 1/2 years in prison for lying and obstructing a federal investigation. the president commuted libby s sentence in 2007.
be a candidate for it. bret: cheney left washington. moved to texas. and became very rich as ceo of the halliburton corporation. an oilfield services company and big government contractor. cheney pocketed more than 20 million dollars between 1995 and 2000 when texas governor and gop presidential nominee george w. bush called. he asked cheney to help him find a running mate. after an extensive search bush picked dick cheney. brings a lot of stature not only to the process, but judgment as well. bret: how concerned were you about the perception about getting some of your father s cabinet members and going back to his defense secretary? i wasn t that worried about following in daddy s footsteps syndrome. dick is a reluctant person which made him more attractive. he said he wanted me to be part of the team. he wanted me to be there to work with him on the issues of
controversy. cheney puts together a task force which included a lot of energy industry types. there were a series of lawsuits to have these records and the meetings paid public. cheney resisted. i ve been around town for 34 years. time after time, administrations have traded away the authority of the president to do his job. we are not going to do that. bret: the issue went to court. atington now council to the vice president. we were counsel to the vice president. we were polite, no it is not your person how recommendations are formed and given to the president. we won that in court and they chose not to appeal. bret: politically, it was a minor scrape. it showed good or bad, cheney was not a man to give into public pressure. soon the white house and soon the white house and cheney would be tested as also get a free flight. you know that comes with a private island. really? no. it comes with a hat.
free of my job for a few weeks and help out. i said sure, why not. we rode back into the white house. the president had been president for less than an hour. bret: ford asked rumsfeld to run the transition. later appointed him chief of staff. cheney was his deputy. one night in a washington restaurant, came his next big lesson in economics. a former yale classmate, economist famously sketched what would be known as the laffer curve on a dinner napkin. a couple of times we invited guests and he invited cheney. they were trying to explain how you could raise more revenue if you cut rates. laffer whipped out a white linen napkin, a good high quality napkin. laid it out on the table andrew out the curve. in a black sharpie kind of pen
the day. he has kept his word. bret: was there an earlier agreement this would be a different vice presidency? no. dick didn t expect one. the vice president is a key adviser. and what makes him different of course is he actually campaigned. no, no preconceived plan about his role. bret: the choice looked good when cheney performed well in national debates. i m pleased to see dick from the newspapers that you are better off than you were eight years ago too. and i can tell you joe that the government had absolutely nothing to do with it. [ laughing ] i can see my wife and i think she is thinking i wish he would go out into the private sector. i m going to try to help you do that joe. [ laughing ] bret: the election turned out too close to call. bush tapped cheney to run the transition in the event they won. it was during this time cheney suffered his fourth heart attack.